One of the more unusual books stocked in Peterborough Museum is ‘Exploring the Lives of Victorian Prostitutes’. Although it’s about prostitutes around England, it has its roots in Peterborough and Stamford, as many of the stories reveal.

The book is designed as an overview of the lives of this unpopular group of women and seeks to show that the life of a Victorian prostitute was often violent and fraught with challenges. More importantly, it sets out to show that these were normal women – not villains – who fell in love, raised children, and did the best they could in awful circumstances.

Many people associate prostitutes with big cities, particularly London, and areas of slums, but the book shows they could be found right round England, from Redruth in Cornwall up to Whitehaven in Cumberland. Peterborough and Stamford had their fair share of prostitutes too.

Stamford was a pleasure town in the Georgian period and still very popular for entertainment in the Victorian period. Where you got entertainment, you got prostitutes! Some of the women in the book include those living in a brothel on North Street, a woman who died on a pile of rags on her floor, and two sisters caught up in the Henry Corby scandal in St Martin’s.

Peterborough was the poorer neighbour to Stamford but had fewer prostitutes. This is partly because of the huge influx of men working on the railways who were able to offer young women a nice new home and a decent income.

Wellington Street was home to the largest number of brothels, but there were plenty of yards behind inns and pubs to accommodate those who had fallen on hard times. City Road, Broad Bridge Street and Midgate had some of the most notorious yards. They were home to women like Elizabeth Ashworth, who was not afraid of making her point with the blade of a knife and once claimed she was Jack the Ripper! You can find her picture in the book, or the original can be viewed in Peterborough Archives in Central Library.

The most fantastical story in the book follows the lives of two sisters, Susan and Mary Anne Tingey. Born in Eye, they found themselves orphaned in Peterborough workhouse with their brothers. They eventually left the workhouse and found themselves working as prostitutes; Mary Anne was in Peterborough and Susan in Stamford. After getting embroiled in an horrific murder case, they both moved to London. Mary Anne married a man excavating the new underground railway and Susan married a minor celebrity! Whereas Mary Anne settled into her life as a wife and mother, Susan enjoyed being in the limelight and was never too far from a scandal, or a very wealthy man… From being an orphan in Peterborough workhouse, she had the wealth to take a Baronet to court for stealing jewels from her! If you want to know the details, you’ll have to get a copy of the book when you’re next visiting the museum and art gallery.